30 December, 2008

Smog Check

Home again after another crazy adventure traveling across the country. The experience left me with an eye tick from the stress! A strange thing to have your eye twitching uncontrollably.

This time it involved a nauseating 8hr bus ride to a smooth 7 hours flying, followed up by 24 hours in the Atlanta airport (I got sick), 7hrs return flights, a busted BART ride, and 6 comparatively easy hours of driving.

Stuck at a cheap ATL hotel I get the worst symptoms of the Rotavirus. At least I wasn't the only one going through this experience. Stranded beside me in the terminal a little girl was suffering the same symptoms, probably from the same cause.

Has flying really gotten this much worse? Besides being forced to buy overpriced bottles of water and tiny $2 snack bars, it turns out we really do get less for our money, especially during the holidays.

Between December 19th and 28th, less than half of the flights arrived on time at major airports. The worst day, the 21st, sufferedonly 39% on time arrivals.

In total 8800 flights were canceled, affecting 1 million travelers. Two to three day wait periods were common for a suitable flight.